


Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine

by mylifeiskara



Series: Chopped Fics [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylifeiskara/pseuds/mylifeiskara
Summary: Emori doesn’t do normal. That’s something she’s never had in her life. It’s why she doesn’t really question it when she starts having weird dreams that have absolutely nothing to do with her. And why she doesn’t question it when she happens upon the subject of the dreams, either. Like this mysterious guy, she’s just along for the ride.A modern retelling of Emori and Murphy’s first meeting. Written for Chopped 3.0 Final Round.THIS FIC WON:2nd Place Best Overall2nd Place Theme3rd Place Tie Frikdreina Trope3rd Place Author's Choice Trope (Strangers to Lovers)2nd Place Tie Best Plot Twist
Relationships: Emori/John Murphy (The 100)
Series: Chopped Fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843351
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: Chopped 3.0 Round 4





	Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!!! So excited to be writing for the final round of Chopped 3.0. It was fun to pick my own theme and one of the tropes this time around.
> 
> Theme: Modernized Canon (my pick)  
> Tropes:  
> 1) El Dorado  
> 2) Frikdreina  
> 3) Telepathy  
> 4) Strangers to Lovers (my pick)
> 
> So this is low key unoriginal, but I was kind of feeling Emori and Murphy meeting mixed with Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble music video. And this is what came out of that. It's a mixture of their first canon meeting in 2x12 and then when they meet again in season 3. 
> 
> Title is from [Meet Me In The Woods](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5axbaGBVto%22) by Lord Huron.

_A pale hand is outstretched, as if searching for the bottle of vodka just out of reach. Footsteps rush in and someone cries out, “Mom!”_

_The footsteps come closer as a boy with slicked back brown hair steps into view. He bends over, checking for some sign she’s still alive, even though he knows very well she’s gone._

_“Mom!” he cries again, this time more frantically. “Please wake up!”_

_“Mom?”_

_“MOM!”_

Emori jolts awake, gasping for breath. She’s had this nightmare before, and it plays out as easily as any memory would. But it’s not her memory. She doesn’t know whose it is, probably the boy crying for his mom.

She turns to find Raven, sound asleep next to her. She stirs, but doesn’t wake up. She looks across the room to find Harper and Echo also sleeping soundly in their double bed. Emori’s glad she didn’t wake anyone. She would hate to have to explain these dreams to someone else. They’d make her sound like a crazy person.

Emori’s not ready to fall back asleep, so she pulls back the covers and puts on her boots. She throws on a hoodie and grabs a dollar and the glove for her left hand and makes her way to the motel vending machine.

She sits on the curb as she sips her soda, lost in thought. She wishes she knew how to explain these dreams, that she could figure out some sort of explanation for them. That’s the third time she’s had this particular one, with the same scared boy she’s never met before. Why are they happening to her specifically? And why this boy? Does this sort of thing happen to anyone else? For once in her life she wishes she could be normal, but normal has never been something Emori’s experienced.

Emori spent much of her childhood alone, her parents unable to care for her. She passed from foster home to foster home, none of them sticking, probably because nobody knew what to do with a girl who had a hand as “messed up” as her left one was. She’d been ridiculed by children and adults alike for something she was born with, something she had no control over. Her life became infinitely easier the day she decided to wear a glove and cover it up.

Just before Emori aged out of the system about a year ago, she met another girl her age named Raven. Raven’s mom died in a car accident that Raven thankfully made it out of alive, but left her with a spinal injury that left permanent damage to her left leg. She wears a brace and is able to walk, but she and Emori quickly bonded over having people look at them as though they werebroken or something about them needed fixing. Raven was Emori’s first real friend, and though they didn’t have much, they had each other.

Their life consisted of hitchhiking, seedy motels, and scraping together what little money they had for food at rest stops and toiletries. Along the way they met Echo and Harper, and they’ve been traveling with them for six months now. It’s been a bit more convenient since Echo has a car. This is the first time that Emori has felt like she has a group of people that care about her, that are looking out for her. Sure, some of her foster parents had been nicer than others, but she never felt like she could be herself or that they ever fully accepted her for who she was, for every bit of her, even the bad parts. For the first time in her life, Emori doesn’t feel so alone.

Once she finishes her soda, she throws it out in the nearby trash can and makes her way back to their motel room. She knows they’ll have to wake up early, and she learned a while ago that she doesn’t sleep well in the car. She tucks herself back into bed and turns on her side to face Raven. She tries to even out her breathing with Raven’s, hoping the steady rise and fall will ease her back into sleep. Hopefully she won’t be plagued by any more odd nightmares.

Emori is awoken a few hours later by a loud blaring coming from Echo’s phone alarm. She groans, wishing she could just roll over and go back to sleep, but Echo has never been one to dawdle in the mornings.

“Rise and shine, ladies!” Echo says as she stops her alarm. “We’ve got one more stop before we meet back up with Baylis in a couple days.”

Echo hops out of bed and makes her way to the bathroom as everyone else continues waking up. Emori blinks a few times as the room comes into focus again.

“Have you ever wondered what it’s like to sleep until you just wake up naturally?” Raven asks.

Emori snorts. “That sounds like a luxury we’ll never be able to afford.”

“Maybe one day we will,” Harper adds.“When we’ve paid off our debts and Baylis lets us into the City of Light.”

Emori and Raven didn’t start traveling around with Echo and Harper by choice. One day about six months ago, Emori was pickpocketing people at a truckstop, and she just so happened to target the wrong guy. His name was Baylis, and he caught her trying to steal his wallet. He didn’t take kindly to being stolen from, and threatened to get the authorities involved. So as not to have him press charges, Emori and Raven agreed to work for him in any way he saw fit. He just so happened to be meeting Echo and Harper, who were doing a job for him and he decided that Emori and Raven would travel around with them as well. Their main task was to keep wayward travellers from getting to the City of Light.

Emori has only ever heard stories of the City of Light, mainly from Raven. Raven’s mother used to tell her about the legends of a place with more advanced technology than you can imagine. Any problem or ailment one would have can be fixed, and there’s an entire wealth of knowledge that most people would kill to get their hands on. It’s always sounded a little too good to be true to Emori, but she indulged Raven’s stories. When they met Baylis and Echo and Harper, Emori still felt skeptical of the whole thing, but she’s swallowed her doubts. Baylis claims that once their debts have been paid off, he’ll take them there himself. And who can blame her if she’s a little bit curious?

“Haven’t you always wondered why Baylis has never talked in depth about who his boss is?” Emori questions as she gets out of bed.

Raven shrugs as she puts on her leg brace. “Why would a tech genius do their own dirty work when they could easily hire someone to do it for them?”

Emori knows Raven has a point, but the whole situation still seems fishy. With each passing day, it feels like she pokes another hole into the story, but she can’t quite put her finger on what bothers her about it. Why be so secretive about the tech, especially when it could do so much good? She doesn’t care all that much. Although they’re working off a debt to Baylis, he still lets them keep some of the money for themselves, and it would be stupid to question the situation too much when she considers the alternatives.

Once they’re all dressed, they pile into Echo’s rundown Honda and head down the highway. Every so often, Baylis texts Echo a location and a date, and they head in that direction, targeting unsuspecting people along the way. There’s a certain look about the people who are trying to make their way to the City of Light. They usually travel in groups, hippie types for the most part, though they have encountered some more buttoned up tech people who are in search of it. They’re set to meet Baylis in three days in the next state over, so they have to meet their quota.

Echo drives until about 12:30, and they pull over to a truck stop diner. They have a few different cons they run on people, though the one they’ve had the most success with is dropping one of them off at a rest stop and asking a stranger for a ride. The rest of the group drives ahead, until they’re on a more deserted stretch of road and when the unsuspecting travellers drop one of the girls at the stop, they steal from them, usually resulting in the group turning around and not trying to get any further.

“It’s your turn, Emori,” Echo says as they finish their lunches.

Emori nods. “Okay.”

Raven goes to the front counter to pay the bill while Echo gives Emori more instructions.

“Whoever you pick up, have them drive you about an hour south of here. We’ll be waiting past exit 9 to ambush them.”

“See you in a bit,” Harper says as she and Echo stand up from the booth. Emori watches as the rest of her companions make their way to Echo’s car and drive off. Emori waits another minute before going to the bathroom, then she hangs out in the diner parking lot.

Raven, Harper, and Emori alternate who plays the helpless traveller, but Emori’s the best at it. She does the best job of picking people who look somewhat lost, while still having decent things to be robbed of. She gives her friends about a twenty minute head start before she starts looking for a target. There’s a lot of families around today, and that won’t do. It’s summer, so naturally people are on vacation, and those aren’t the type of people Emori is looking for. She’s looking for people that don’t look like they should be travelling together, but they are anyway.

Ten minutes later, a pick-up truck pulls into the diner parking lot. A weird sense of deja vu overcomes Emori as she observes the boy sitting in the bed of the pick-up truck. He looks about her age, brown hair that could probably do with a haircut, a frown on his face as if he’d rather be anywhere else. He looks so familiar, but she’s never seen him before. He lifts his eyes and looks in her direction, as if he felt her eyes on him. She turns and ducks her head, pulling out her phone as she pretends to mind her business. Once the truck is stopped, he hops out, and two other men, both much older than him, exit from the front. They definitely don’t seem like a group that would travel together under normal circumstances. A perfect target.

Emori shrinks back behind the diner until their group is safely inside. She’s not sure how long she’ll have to wait, since she doesn’t know what they’re ordering, but this part of the job has always taken time. At least this diner has quick service.

They finish up after about half an hour, and Emori prepares for them to exit the diner. As they near the door, she walks up to it, so that as the man who was driving opens it, the door slams into her. Emori winces at the pain as she falls to the ground. She’s done this before, and she’ll be fine, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.

“Are you alright? My apologies, I didn’t see you there,” the man says.

Emori opens her eyes to find the three men staring at her with concern.

“No, it’s okay,” she says. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

He stoops down to examine her. “You’re bleeding. We have some bandages in the truck. John, help her up.”

The younger boy does as he’s told and moves forward, extending a hand to her. She takes it and he helps her up. She leans on him, doing her best to play the victim, as he leads her to the bed of the truck. The other two men follow closely behind.

The boy, or John, now that she’s heard the other man call him that, sorts through their first aid kit and takes out an anti-bacterial wipe and a bandage. He leans in closer to her forehead, where the door hit her and inspects the cut.

“Looks like just a surface wound, so that’s good,” he says.

“I’ve had worse,” Emori responds simply.

“What’s your name?” their leader asks as John continues tending to her face.

“Emori.”

“I’m Thelonious. This is Gideon, though he doesn’t say much, and John. Are you out here all alone?”

“I was going to meet some friends on vacation, but I got our meeting spot mixed up. And the cell service is crap around here, so I can’t get in touch with them.”

“Where are you headed? We could get you there. It’s the least we can do after running into you in the way we did.”

“Just after exit 9.”

“Perfect. We were heading in that direction anyway.” Thelonious motions for Gideon to get back in the truck. “Let’s get a move on.”

John finishes bandaging Emori’s head as they pull out of the parking lot. He retreats back to his spot and rubs some hand sanitizer on his hands. They sit silently in the back of the truck for the first ten minutes of the ride. Emori studies him, still not sure what to make of him. The frown he has seems to be deep set in his face, but he’s pretty cute.

_You’re cute, too_ , he says, though his lips don’t move.

They stare at each other in shock, not sure what just happened. Emori hadn’t said that out loud. And he hadn’t responded out loud. Is he in her head? Neither of them seem to want to dwell on it, so Emori changes the subject, this time actually speaking.

“So where are you all headed?” Emori asks.

“Jaha— that is, Thelonious, is dead set on finding the City of Light,” John answers.

Emori’s not sure if it’s because she can weirdly read this guy’s mind or if it’s his general demeanor, but she can tell he thinks it’s a load of bullshit.

“You don’t believe in it, do you?”

He snorts. “What gave me away?”

“Just a feeling,” she says with a chuckle.

“I’ve had a weird year, I guess you could say. My mom fell off the wagon once and for all, I’ve got nothing tying me down anywhere. I don’t believe in anything, really. I’m just along for the ride.”

Emori nods, thinking back to the dream she had the night before. Maybe this is why she had that dream, a sort of premonition, something signaling this boy was going to enter into her life. She has no idea how or why they’re connected, but they are for some reason. It can’t just be a coincidence.

“I get what you mean. I don’t really believe in much, either.”

“Do I get to unlock your tragic backstory?” he asks, a smirk on his face.

She laughs. “It’s not all that original. My parents couldn’t take care of me, so I was in foster care for as long as I can remember. Up until about six months ago, I never really had a group of people I could even call friends.”

“Why not?”

Emori feels in her gut like she can trust John, so as they cruise down the highway, she pulls off her glove to show him her left hand. He eyes it with the most neutral look she’s ever seen someone give her hand.

“I was born with this. Nobody ever really knew what to make of it, so I was ridiculed for it. It’s easier now to just cover it up.” She quickly slides her glove back into place.

“Well fuck them,” he replies simply.

She looks at him, almost in disbelief. She barely knows this guy and he’s already better than most of the people she’s ever met.

“It’s not like your hand defines who you are. And if you ask me, it’s pretty badass.”

“Well you’re one of very few people who thinks so.”

“And those are the only people whose opinions matter.”

She smiles at him, and he smiles back. She feels her face heating up, and her stomach does a dip as she realizes this is the first time she’s seen him not frown. And it’s directed at her. She almost feels bad that she’s about to con him.

They don’t say much else for the rest of the drive, though Emori does catch him staring every so often. It’s kind of nice to feel wanted, even if she’s never gonna see John again.

Thelonious pulls off onto the shoulder after they’ve taken exit 9. He steps out of the car and comes to the bed of the truck.

“Is this where your friends said they would meet you?” he questions, as he looks around and doesn’t see anyone stopped.

Emori nods. “They should be here any minute now.”

Almost as if she spoke them out of thin air, Echo, Harper, and Raven jump out from behind the bushes, guns pointed towards the pick-up truck. Her companions’ moment of shock allows Emori to grab John and push him to his knees, as she pulls her own gun and points it at his head.

“Everyone step away from the vehicle with your hands up!” Emori shouts.

Thelonious and Gideon do as they’re told. Raven keeps her gun on them while Harper and Echo go through their truck, pocketing the things they find useful.

Emori holds her gun steady, still trained at John’s forehead. His face is unreadable, but she can hear his mind racing.

_What the fuck_? he wonders.

A brief wave of something washes over Emori, though she keeps steady. Is this guilt? It’s not that she doesn’t like this guy. This is just part of her job. She can’t form attachments. But she feels as though she owes him some sort of explanation. She uses whatever weird connection they have to her advantage as Echo and Harper search the truck.

_I’m sorry, John_.

_Then why are you doing this_?

_We do what we must to survive._

“This’ll be enough!” Echo declares.

Emori nods and moves her gun from John’s head. She jumps out of the bed of the truck and follows as her friends retreat. She leaves John with one last parting thought.

_Due north_ , she thinks as they disappear into the bushes. She may not fully believe in the City of Light either, but at least she can point them in the right direction, especially since they were going the wrong way.

They run to Echo’s car, which is parked in a clearing, and speed off until they reach the next town. Once they find a vacant motel and check in, they survey their haul from the truck. Echo sorts through it, then sends a text to Baylis for new instructions.

“Oh my god,” Echo says, staring down at her phone.

“What is it?” Harper asks.

“Baylis says when we meet up, he’s going to take us to the City of Light.”

“What?” Emori asks with a frown.

“But what about the rest of our debt?” Raven wonders.

“He says we can pay it off there. Apparently his boss could use some extra assistance.”

Raven, Harper, and Echo spend the rest of the night excitedly talking about what they think the City of Light will be like. They’ve never been sure of the exact location, so they have no idea what to expect. Emori feigns excitement when they ask her about it, but she’s still not that interested. She can’t help but feel like something’s fishy. Why does he want to take them there now, all of a sudden? What’s changed?

She also can’t stop thinking about John. She wishes she had an explanation for whatever seems to be connecting them. He must be the boy from her dreams. It’s too much of a coincidence for him to have mentioned his mom when she’s been having nightmares about someone’s mother dying. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get answers, but she also thinks it’s an unfair trick of the universe to have that boy come into her life just one time. Especially when he was so cute.

The next morning they drive to the outskirts of the town where they’ll meet Baylis. He won’t meet them for another couple days, so they have some time to kill. It’s unfortunate that wherever the City of Light actually is, that it happens to be in the middle of nowhere. There’s not much for them to do in the meantime.

They’re sitting outside a rest stop around lunchtime the day before they’re supposed to meet Baylis. The days have passed by slowly now that they’ve just been waiting around, and Emori is bored for the first time in months. She loves her friends, but all they seem to want to talk about is the City of Light. She drifts in and out of the conversation, letting her thoughts overtake her when she hears a familiar voice in her head.

_How the fuck does a candy bar cost so much money_?

Emori frowns, looking around to find the source of the voice. She would feel like a crazy person had the same voice not been in her head a few days ago. Her eyes come to rest on him again, standing in front of a vending machine with the same frown set into his face. She jumps up from the table, alarming her friends, but she doesn’t care. This is the most exciting thing to happen to her in days.

“I don’t believe it!” she shouts. “John?”

John turns in the direction of her voice, a smile creeping across his face. “Emori?”

They meet each other halfway.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” she says.

“I could say the same thing about you, seeing as you and your friends robbed me.”

Emori shrugs. “It’s just part of the job. What happened to the people you were travelling with?”

“We didn’t really see eye-to-eye. So I’m on my own now.”

Emori nods, allowing herself to really look at John for the first time. He’s still cute, so that wasn’t just something she made up in her head. They size each other up, almost as if they’re mentally asking themselves when whatever is clearly going on between them is going to happen.

“Do you have any plans the rest of the day?” John eventually asks.

“I don’t have anywhere to be until tomorrow.”

“We could hang out, if you want. I’d say you owe me dinner since you took all my stuff.”

Emori giggles at his joke. She’s not usually like this around guys. What’s going on?

“But uh, you might wanna check with your friends,” he adds, gesturing behind her.

She frowns, but looks over her shoulder to find Echo, Harper, and Raven eyeing her curiously from the picnic table.

“I’ll be right back.”

She turns and heads back to her friends.

“Isn’t that the guy we stole from the other day?” Raven asks once Emori reaches the table again.

“Yeah. I think I’m gonna go hang out with him.”

Echo shakes her head. “That’s not a good idea.”

“It’s not like we’re doing anything! What’s the harm in having a little fun?”

“You shouldn’t form attachments like this, Emori.”

“I’m not attached to him. He’s cute and he wants to hang out, how often does that happen?”

“What if it’s dangerous?” Harper asks.

“He’s by himself, and I literally pinned him down on my own. I think I’ll be okay.”

Echo finally relents. “Just make sure you’re back in time to meet Baylis. You know he doesn’t like to wait.”

Emori nods and picks up her bag. “Don’t wait up.”

With that, she turns back to John. A big smile spreads across his face as she approaches and she can’t help but duck her head to hide her blush.

“Lead the way,” she says when she reaches him.

They walk across the parking lot to an old Corolla. Emori frowns as John stops in front of it.

“What?” he says. “You’re not the only one with a few tricks up your sleeve.”

She laughs as she gets into the passenger seat and he drives off.

There aren’t a lot of places to go on dates with strangers you stole from in the middle of nowhere. If Emori can even call it a date. They’ll probably just eat, have sex in his car, and when morning comes, she’ll never see him again. Which is nothing new for Emori. But there’s something different about John that almost makes her wish she would get to see him again. She tries not to dwell on it, focusing on hanging out with him for the time they have together.

They eat dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant. Emori’s never really been on a date, and she’s pretty sure John hasn’t either, but as they sit awkwardly in their booth eating dinner, Emori decides this is probably what all those weird first dates she watched on TV are supposed to feel like. It’s a little strange, but she kind of loves how normal it all seems.

“So is the City of Light really due north?” John asks before taking a bite of his sandwich.

“I’ve never actually been. I just know the general direction. So to answer your real question, no I was not messing with you the other day.”

He smiles. “Good to know.”

“My friends and I are meeting up with our boss tomorrow. He’s supposedly going to be taking us there. Though I’m not sure why now, exactly.”

“Sounds like something’s up.”

“Right? My friends are all excited so I’m trying not to put a damper on things, but I can’t help but wonder what we’re about to walk into.”

“Well you seem like a group that can hold your own if it does end up being a trap. The whole concept is still a little too good to be true, for me. All that tech that can supposedly fix anything, and there’s still so much messed up shit going on in the world? Why would you hide that?”

“I kind of wondered the same thing,” Emori admits.

Murphy pauses, almost as if he’s unsure if he should say what he’s going to say next.

“What is it?” she asks.

“It’s nothing.”

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but it’s obviously something.”

He sighs before continuing. “I guess I just think about all the ways the stuff people talk about in the City of Light could have helped my dad when he was sick. And the fact that whoever made it all doesn’t want to share it pisses me off. That’s why I don’t want to believe in it, I guess. Why wouldn’t they want to help?”

Emori doesn’t know what to say. She doesn’t completely know what he’s going through, since she never knew her parents, but she can tell that was hard for him to bring up. She reaches across the table and puts her hand on top of his. He looks up at her and a moment of understanding passes between them. They’ve both been through a lot, and that just makes Emori feel even more connected to this guy.

Emori tries to pay for dinner to make up for robbing John, but he insists he was joking and pays the bill himself. They exit the restaurant in a comfortable silence. Emori knows what comes next, but she’s not in a rush to make it happen.

“This might sound a little bit crazy, but seeing as we can weirdly hear each other’s thoughts, I feel like I can tell you,” she says.

“Now you’ve caught my attention.”

She chuckles. “As if I haven’t had it all night.”

Now it’s his turn to laugh. “Touché.”

“Before I met you the other day, I’d been having these weird dreams. They were like memories, but they weren’t my memories. And when you mentioned your mom falling off the wagon, I wondered if it might have been because of you.”

John stops walking and turns to look at Emori, a frown on his face.

“I’ve been having a nightmare for the past couple weeks about finding my mom dead.”

“So it _was_ your dream.”

“I guess so.”

“Huh.”

“So what do you think it means?” he asks, stepping closer to her.

“I think it means we’re connected for some reason,” she answers, not tearing her eyes from his as she steps in as well.

“It’s pretty weird, but I can’t say I mind it.”

“Me neither.”

He takes her hand and laces their fingers together. Their faces are inches apart now, and she can practically hear his heart pounding.

_Is this happening_? he thinks.

_It’s happening_ , she answers.

With that John closes the distance between them, pressing his lips to hers. His hands find her waist as she wraps her arms around his shoulders. He doesn’t waste any time pressing his tongue against her lips and she opens her mouth to let him in. There’s an urgency to the kiss, since they might never see each other again. Emori breaks away and a quiet moan escapes John’s lips.

“Should we go back to your car?” she asks, pressing her forehead to his.

“Yeah, good idea,” he breathes.

He leads the way back to his car where they continue to make out in the back seat. They take their time as they kiss now, learning each other as they shed their clothes. Emori lets out a sigh as John’s mouth trails down to her neck. She doesn’t think she’s ever felt this wanted, and she relishes in John’s touch as they move together in the dark.

Sunlight filters into the car the next morning, waking Emori up. She has to take a moment to remember where she is. John is still fast asleep next to her. She smiles as she watches him sleep for a moment before pulling her phone out of her bag to check the time. It’s after ten. She was supposed to meet Baylis with the others at seven.

“Shit!”

John stirs at the noise, but doesn’t completely wake up. Emori shakes him.

“John? John!”

“I’m up. What’s wrong?” he asks as he sits up.

“I was supposed to meet the others hours ago! God, I knew I should have set an alarm. Fuck!”

“Hey, it’s okay. I can drive you back to where you were supposed to meet. They might not have left yet.”

He pulls his shirt back on, then hops out of the back and into the driver’s seat. Emori climbs into the front and John pulls out of the parking lot. She directs him to their rendezvous point, but the spot is deserted when they arrive.

John has barely stopped the car before Emori jumps out, frantically searching for her friends when she knows they’re not here. They left her behind. She can’t believe she let her guard down. How could she be so stupid?

She dials Raven’s phone number, but she knows she won’t get an answer. Baylis will have told them not to contact her. As she suspected, it goes straight to voicemail. She wants more than anything to get back with her group. She doesn’t care about the City of Light, but if that’s where her friends are, that’s where she wants to be. She’s separated from the first group of people she ever considered her family. And she has no idea how she’s going to get back to them.

“Shit,” Emori says, as tears of frustration roll down her face. This wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She stares down at the ground, upset that she’s crying, but more upset that she’s crying in front of John. He doesn’t need to see her like this.

He approaches her cautiously.

“Emori?” he asks. “Are you alright?”

“They left without me. I don’t know what to do now.”

They stand in silence as Emori takes a breath to calm her nerves. John surprises her by lightly wrapping an arm around her shoulder. It feels almost too intimate, which is silly to think when they just had sex the night before. But that was more about lust than anything else. This gesture is filled with a level of comfort that Emori’s not used to receiving. She’s thrown by it, but she doesn’t hate it.

“I can take you there.”

Emori’s eyes widen and she turns to look at her companion. She’s stunned he would even offer. What does he have to gain from helping her?

“You’re not serious,” she says, narrowing her eyes.

“Yeah I am. I mean, it’s kind of my fault they left you behind. And I don’t have anything better to do.”

“You don’t even know where it is.”

“Neither do you. But due north, right? We’re bound to run into it eventually if we just keep driving.”

She studies him, still skeptical of his intentions. Nobody’s ever done something like this for her before. Everyone always wants something.

“Look, we can still hear each other’s thoughts, so I know what you’re thinking. But I just want to help. And last night was fun, so maybe we can do that again, too,” John says, a blush spreading across his cheeks.

Emori laughs at his joke. “Yeah, it wouldn’t be so terrible if we were to repeat that.”

“Cool. So do you wanna get going? Or should we get breakfast?”

“Breakfast sounds nice.”

He nods. “Okay.”

Emori smiles and steps in to press a kiss to John’s cheek. His eyes widen at the gesture, and it’s clear to Emori that he’s not used to intimacy either.

“Thank you, John.”

“You’re welcome.”

With that, they hop back into John’s car and drive off up the highway. Emori has no clue where they’re going or how long it’ll take to get there, but she knows that things will be interesting with John by her side.

The next week spent with John is probably the most fun Emori has had in a long time, maybe ever. His companionship might have been unexpected, but she’s glad for it. They spend their days driving, with no clue where they’re going, and they stop at motels at night along the way. Emori kind of loves traveling with someone that she can just reach over and kiss whenever she feels like it. She didn’t even know this guy a week ago, but now she can barely remember what life was like before she met him. It’s a crazy thought, one that Emori never thought she’d get to experience personally, but she embraces it.

Nobody’s ever looked at Emori the way John does. He makes her feel special, wanted, and loved. They’re lying in bed together one night as they catch their breath. Emori feels comfortable with John, but tonight was the first time she took off her glove while they had sex. They’re on their sides facing each other and he stares at her left hand. Emori almost wants to shrink back from his gaze, afraid maybe she misjudged him, misjudged everything. But after a moment he takes her left hand and puts it to his chest, admiring this part of her that people have called her a freak for in the past.

“We make a pretty good team, don’t you think?” John says, looking back at her.

Emori smiles as she relaxes back onto the pillow. “Yes. I do.”

He smiles back and leans down to kiss her again. Kissing John is like nothing Emori’s ever experienced. His lips are soft, yet insistent all at once. She melts into his touch, wanting to commit to memory the thrill she gets when he holds her, like she’s the only person in the world.

Although Emori is enjoying spending her time with John, she spends a lot of time at night letting her mind wander, wondering where her friends could be. They’ve probably made it to the City of Light by now. They’d have a much easier time finding it, since Baylis directed them to it. She hopes it’s everything they thought it would be. She’s not sure what she and John are going to do if they don’t find it soon. They can’t keep driving forever. But in the back of her mind she’s worried he’ll get bored and decide this isn’t worth all the trouble after all.

“Come back to bed,” he mumbles.

She turns to look at him. His hair is rumpled from sleep, and his eyes are only half open.

“In a minute,” she promises.

He frowns at her, seeing through that lie. It’s no fair that they can tell what the other is thinking. He extracts himself from beneath the covers and moves to join her at the foot of the bed.

“You’re worried about your friends,” John says simply. He presses a kiss to her bare shoulder. Normally a grounding touch like that would calm her, but she’s still tense.

Emori nods. “What’s gonna happen if we never find it? What if it really doesn’t exist? What if it was a trick all along?”

“I’m not gonna say anything reassuring because I know that wouldn’t work on you, but we’ve come this far already. I’d say there’s no turning back. And even if we had to, I can’t say I feel like this trip has been a waste of time.”

“It hasn’t been a waste for me, either.”

“You trust me, don’t you?”

She looks into his eyes as he stares her down waiting for an answer. She’s never had anyone in her life she could trust, but she knows she trusts him.

“I do.”

“Good.”

She smiles at him and presses a quick kiss to his lips. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

John’s cheeks redden at that. He pulls her back to bed with him, wrapping his arms around her. Emori is safe in his arms and she eventually drifts back to sleep.

They drive aimlessly for a few more days, still heading north. Emori’s still unsure of what’s going to happen, whether or not they end up at the City of Light.

“At this rate, we’re just gonna hit Canada and then we’re gonna have some problems,” John muses.

“I wish I had more to go off besides due north,” Emori sighs, resting her head back on her seat’s headrest.

“Well didn’t you say that Raven’s mom used to tell her stories? Did they ever get specific about what it looks like?”

“The descriptions all sounded a little too fantastical to make much sense. It’s why I never really believed it was real.”

“Did she ever say anything about there being weird looking glass buildings?” John asks.

Emori turns to look at him in confusion. She notices he’s staring at something in the distance. She looks ahead and sees what John must be referring to.

Probably past the next exit looms a building that seems out of place in the middle of nowhere they’ve been traveling through. It’s tall and industrial, like something out of a big city. Maybe he’s onto something.

“Let’s take the next exit,” Emori says.

John drives for about ten more minutes in the direction of the building. He pulls over and parks the car behind a bush so it’s out of sight. Now that they’re closer, there are many buildings in the same style, sleek and new-looking. Skyscrapers with rows and rows of windows, though they can’t see inside.

They get out of the car and walk further into the throng of buildings. It’s deserted, which isn’t something that Emori expected. She can’t help but stare up as she walks. She’s never seen buildings so tall in her life.

“So where’s all the tech?” she wonders aloud. “You’d think it would be out on display.”

“That seems unlikely. Since we don’t even know whose tech it is,” John points out.

“That’s true. I thought we’d see at least a few people, though.”

A buzzing sound interrupts their thoughts and they look up in the air. A fancy drone hovers above them, as if alerting someone to their presence.

“I guess someone’s here somewhere,” John says.

“Should we keep going?” Emori asks. She’s beginning to feel oddly nervous. Something’s not right.

“What do we have to lose?”

_Only our lives_ , she thinks to herself.

“Hey,” he says, taking her hands in his. “We’re gonna be okay. If any two people can survive this, it’s us.”

She nods and lets him lead the way in the direction that the drone came.

They walk hand-in-hand for a few more minutes through the streets of the City of Light. Up close Emori notices that each door they pass has some sort of swiveling eye that follows them as they pass through. So nobody’s around, but someone is clearly watching them.

After about a mile they come across a mansion set in the distance. It sticks out, as the only building not in the more modern style of the others.

“John!” a familiar voice calls out from the lawn of the house. He begins to approach.

“Shit, is that Jaha?” John wonders aloud.

“I guess he made it after all,” Emori mumbles.

“He was pretty pissed at you guys for taking his stuff. Maybe you should hide.”

“Hate to break it to you, but I think whoever is here already knows I’m with you.”

“Still. At least until we know what he wants.”

Emori sighs, but relents. She squeezes John’s hand, then ducks behind one of the buildings. She watches from the shadows as John and Thelonious approach each other.

“Jaha!” John says. “I’d say it’s great to see you again, but that would be a lie.”

Thelonious chuckles. Emori notices a new air about him than when she first ran into him at the diner. He’s holding himself differently, and there’s something almost sinister behind his eyes.

“Ever the jokester, aren’t you?” Thelonious continues. “Where’s your little friend?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t have any friends,” John lies.

“Don’t lie to me, John. I know you’re trying to protect her, but we won’t harm you. We just want to help.”

“Who’s we?”

Out of nowhere a holographic figure appears. She is a prim looking woman in a red dress, with perfectly done lipstick and pulled back hair. Emori’s eyes widen as she watches the scene unfold.

“Hello, John Murphy,” the hologram says.

“How does that thing know my name?” John asks.

For the first time since they arrived, he actually seems a bit taken aback. Emori can feel the thoughts racing through his brain. He’s nervous. She wants to jump out from her hiding spot and stand with him, help him in whatever way she can. But she trusts him to handle it.

“I know everything about everyone who steps foot on this island,” the hologram continues. “Including your friend who is hiding from me. I just want to help, John.”

John snorts. “A fine load of help you’re doing. Keeping all this technology to yourself.”

“It was not time to share my creations with the world. If placed in the wrong hands, all this technology could backfire and create chaos. I was keeping it safe by hiding it away.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Now, now, John,” Thelonious says. “Watch your language.”

“Since when do you tell me what to do?”

“I’d cooperate if I were you. We’d hate for something to happen to your new friend, now wouldn’t we?”

“She has an ailment. Her hand. We can fix that for her, as we did for her friend Raven’s leg.”

Emori’s heart races hearing Raven’s name. So Baylis really did bring her friends to the City of Light. But if they’re here why hasn’t she seen them? And did they really fix Raven’s leg?

John scoffs. “I wouldn’t call her hand an ailment. And what makes you so sure she’d want that, anyway?”

“We have ways of getting you both to cooperate, John,” Thelonious says, stepping closer to him.

“Well you might have to use them,” John answers with a shrug. “I’m not talking.”

_Emori, get out of here_ , he says in her head.

Emori frowns. _What, no! I’m not leaving you behind_.

_At least get out of here until you can figure out a plan. I’ll be fine, just go_!

John throws his fist at Thelonious as he steps closer, but Thelonious easily catches it before it connects with his face. He punches John, knocking him out, and Emori has to hold back a gasp. With John unconscious, Thelonious picks him up and turns around back in the direction of the mansion. The hologram disappears, and suddenly, Emori is alone.

Emori takes a few deep breaths before backing out of her hiding spot. She wants to run after John, wants to high tail it in the direction of the mansion, but that would be reckless, and as much as she hates to admit it, John is right. She has no idea what she’s up against, and she’s more vulnerable now that she and John are separated.

She walks quickly, reversing her steps, wary of the eyes on the building that follow her every move as she walks in the opposite direction. She needs a plan. One that helps her save John and the rest of her friends. If the odd way Thelonious was acting was any indication, Emori’s fears about the City of Light were correct. She’s not sure what it is yet, but something’s wrong. This may be a technological paradise, but it’s also a nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you guys enjoyed, even though it ends on a somewhat angsty note. 
> 
> Now that Chopped is over, if anyone has any interest in an addition to this so it's less angsty, perhaps that's the perfect thing to prompt me with for [t100 Fic for BLM](https://t100fic-for-blm.tumblr.com/)! I have like a vague idea of where this could go, but I'm totally open to suggestions for things you'd want to see. And if you prompt me, it'll go higher on my to-do list. 
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr](https://queenemori.tumblr.com/), and don't forget to check out the other awesome fics from this round!


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